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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
commercial use of works in the public domain
Mike Morones, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Fredericksburg | VA | USA | Posted: 4:31 PM on 12.02.09 |
->> I was having a discussion with a coworker today about using images that are in the public domain. He argues that if it is in the public domain, you can do anything you want with it. I argued that does not extend to commercial use.
For example, I argued that I could get a print of Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother and hang it on the wall or I could use it in the paper for editorial purposes but I could not make a hundred copies and sell them at $10 a pop.
Now having done a little poking around, I'm beginning to think I'm wrong. Anybody have a definitive answer? thanks! |
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Eric Canha, Photographer
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Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 2:24 PM on 12.03.09 |
->> Mike if it is in the public domain it is up for grabs freely. Ever wonder why cartoons in the "old" days always used classical music? It was because they could use the studio musicians and not have to pay usage. No copyright holder to worry about.
I forget who but I believe that one of the members here wrote about his frustrations. Being a Navy photographer and seeing his work being sold on shore by someone who downloaded the files. His frustration about his work being in the public domain as a result of his federal employment.
BTW in your example making 100 or 100,000 prints and selling them at $10/pop is still editorial use. Photoshopping a bottle of Tide into the shot and adding text that the migrant mother endorses Tide is a commercial use. In my example you would need a release from the people in the photo but NOT Lange's. |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 2:30 PM on 12.03.09 |
->> You can do anything you want with the photo -- including commercial use. But you will still be on the hook to obtain permission for commercial use of likeness for any recognizable people in the image.
Commercial use of likeness is completely separate from the concept of public domain.
--Mark |
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